I Can't Stand This Day
by PuppetMasterPuppet
Summary: Arthur finally comes to one of Alfred's brithday parties. But he's not happy... USxUK. Late birthday fic for America.


His last few birthdays had been crappy. A couple had rain, a few had clouds and fog, and more recently, instead of fireworks being lit, his flags, the symbol of himself, were being set on fire.

But that was all in the past. This birthday was going to be different.

--

"Happy birthday, mon cher. I hope you enjoy your gifts." Francis smirked as Alfred took a peak inside the bag. The younger nation's expression was _priceless_.

"That will make your nights with Arthur a little easier." The older blonde whispered as a glare was shot his way. "Once either of you two is man enough to swipe the other off his feet, that is." Alfred grinned and thanked the Frenchman for his very _useful_ gift.

"Arrêter, it's rude." Matthew said quietly as he slid between the two conversing nations. "I hope you'll like the music I gave you. I mean…your people seem to like it already." He looked down and held his polar bear tighter.

Alfred laughed and gave his brother a hug, ignoring his annoying polar bear's questions. He ruffled the Canadian's hair a bit.

"Yeah, I mean Rush and Arrogant Worms are really starting to grow on me. Just wish you would've introduced me to this stuff sooner." The American smiled when he saw the Frenchman grab his brothers hand and pull him closer. He seemed to be taking good care of Matthew.

"America? Can you come over here, aru?" Upon hearing Yao call him, Alfred excused himself from opening his presents and walked to where China was.

After being stopped by Russia to be asked if he wanted to become one as his ultimate birthday present, the blonde accidentally bumped into one of the Italy brothers while they were carrying out pizza.

"_Merda!_ You almost got that all over me, you idiot! If it wasn't your birthday today I'd--" Before Alfred even figured out which Italian it was, Spain covered the boy's mouth and laughed nervously.

"I apologize for Lovi's clumsiness, mi amigo. He can have a very short fuse sometimes. But, don't take what he says personally, he never means any of it. You can tell," The Spaniard smirked and looked down at the Italian. "when he blushes like a tomato, he doesn't mean a thing he says. Right, mi amor?"

The older European removed his hand from Lovino's mouth and wrapped his arms around the boy's waist instead.

"I hate you." Lovino choked out, his face almost as red as the sauce on the pizza he was holding.

Antonio, however, laughed and placed a kiss on the top of his head. "I love you too." He turned his attention towards the birthday boy. "And I am sorry for my friend's clumsiness."

With that said, Alfred nodded and went back to the task at hand. When he found China, the man was in the kitchen, bent over a very wasted Brit.

"He's been drinking again, aru. I think it would be best for us to take him to bed. Is there a guest room he can stay in, aru?" Yao asked, moving away from England enough to reveal tears streaking down the British man's face and a bottle of whiskey in his hand that would probably take a lot of coaxing to get away from him.

"Thanks, but I can take care of England from here. You go have some fun. I think Hong Kong and Japan were looking for you before. Something about the fireworks display for tonight." Alfred began lifting his older brother to his feet as China ran outside.

"I…I'm so sorry, America…"

Arthur's tears were still running down his face, no matter how many times Alfred wiped them away, they kept pouring down.

--

"There ya go." America sighed and sat on his bed, next to his intoxicated friend. "You know, out of all the times you've actually come to my parties, this has to be the only time you actually got drunk…or have stayed for more then ten minutes." He laughed a bit. "So, did you at least have fun?"

The closest thing to an answer that the American received was the few hiccups and choked sobs coming from Arthur (who was pathetically curled into a ball).

"Come on, Arthur," Alfred placed a large hand on the shorter man's head and ran his fingers through dirty blonde locks. "What's wrong?"

This time, Alfred's question was answered with a quiet snore.

Smiling sadly, the younger nation wiped the tears from his brother's stained cheeks. They had stopped for now.

--

"America, they have your fireworks set up and Germany and Su-san are ready to light them. Is that alright with you?" Finland walked up to the taller nation, cradling his fluffy white dog in his arms. What was his name again?

"Cool. Give me five minutes then, I have to go wake up England. There is no way he'd wanna miss this!" With that, Alfred turned on his heel, leaving his guests to gawk at the thousands of fireworks that were scattered over the birthday boy's front lawn.

"Hey, nii-san, this would be a great time to propose to me. Then, we can get married, married, MARRIED!" Natalia squeaked, pinching her older brother's cheeks. Speaking of which, the white-haired man was trying to squirm out from under his deranged sister.

"Belarus, p-please don't do that to big brother; he doesn't want to spend anymore time cowering from you than necessary." Ukraine laughed nervously when she saw not only her brother, but Lithuania shaking too.

Latvia hid behind Estonia and whimpered. "D-does that mean h-he's going to take his sadness out on u-us?" In response, Estonia sighed and ruffled the smaller boy's hair.

"No, if anything, Lithuan-" Before he could finish, Latvia's hand was grabbed by someone else and the boy was pulled to his feet.

"Come on, Latvia. I heard that that bastard, England, brought over some rum. We can go look around for it and, if all else fails, I'm sure Prussia will be just ecstatic to swipe some of Russia's vodka for us." Peter, the smallest person there, pulled Latvia away from the fireworks and ran toward the table full of food.

"I think France brought some wine and all but I wouldn't trust it. He might have put something freaky in it." Sealand laughed, watching his back to make sure Finland or Sweden weren't watching.

--

Alfred slowly pushed open the door to his room. Light flooded in from the hallway and sent a ray of yellow to rest upon the sleeping Brit's face.

_He looks so peaceful…_

"Arthur," Alfred sat next to his brother and shook him a bit. "Arthur, they're ready to start the fireworks and you just have to see them. It'll be awesome! Please?"

With that said, England groaned and opened his eyes. Save for the streak of light from the hall, the rest of the room was pitch-black.

"What in the bloody hell am I doing here? And why is it dark? It was as light as hell a few minutes ago." Then, he took a good look at Alfred and almost jumped. "What did you do to me, git? Or worse, was it that frog, Francis? I'll kill that twat when I get my hands on him."

Alfred laughed a bit and pulled Arthur close, wrapping his arms around him.

"You got drunk, England. Me and China just put you to bed for a bit. You were a mess, crying and cursing on my kitchen floor…" As soon as Alfred paused, he felt England tense. But, he wouldn't stop talking now. This was the only time Arthur actually stayed for one of his parties; it was Alfred's job to keep him there until the party was over.

"You never came to one of my parties before. And now, you get drunk and cry. I don't understand you, Arthur." Despite the small struggles England was giving, Alfred thought everything was going alright.

"So, tell me. Why were you crying and apologizing to me before? Why are you always so sad when my birthday comes around? Is it because of the war, Arthur?" The Brit buried his face in Alfred's jacket and tightened his hold around his back.

"Well, if it is, I'm sorry. I had to leave, Arthur, everybody does. I grew up and moved on and I did it all without you helping me. Back then, fighting in that war was the best thing to do. But even now, we're still friends. You were the person who made me the awesome nation I am right now. Sure, maybe you yell at me all the time and maybe you hate my guts, but, I still love you, Arthur. No matter what, I'll never stop." Alfred made to get off the bed, but he was pushed down onto it instead.

"You…you bloody git." Arthur's teary green eyes met Alfred's ocean blue ones. "I never said I hated you. You were…were my little boy. You chose me over France a-and you were always following me around, trying to amount to what I was back then. B-but I always wondered what I did wrong. That day was…was the worst day of my life. You left me and I-I thought you'd never so much as look at me again." Arthur sniffed and wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry I…I drove you away."

Then, without thinking, Alfred wrapped his arms around his brother's neck and pulled him down so, instead of practically straddling him, Arthur was laying on top of him, their faces inches apart.

"You know, Arthur, I never did tell you how much I missed you, did I?" And his lips closed on top of England's quivering ones, silencing any protests or apologies that would slip out.

Arthur whimpered into the kiss, tears sliding down his cheeks, and opened his mouth slowly, allowing his former colony to do what he's wanted to do for more than two-hundred years.

--

"Like, where's America? We were supposed to light these fireworks ages ago and I'm getting tired of waiting!" Poland stretched his arms out and wrapped them around Lithuania. He curled against him on the grass, not caring if anybody saw under his skirt, and pressed a chaste kiss to his boyfriend's cheek.

"Just be patient, Felix, I'm sure he'll be back soon." The brunette smiled and let his hands rest on the blonde's hips.

They heard a laugh behind them and turned around.

"Well, these fireworks were made in Korea anyway, so I'll light them now, since they're mine."

--

"Aaah…Alfred. You.."

The American laughed, getting off of the blushing blonde and flopping beside him.

"Like I said, I love you no matter what. So, stop getting so upset on my birthday when you should be happy and celebrating with everybody else." Then, something clicked. "Oh, shit."

Arthur stopped to think, then chuckled and nudged Alfred up and off of the bed.

"You forgot about those fireworks, didn't you?"

The two nations fixed their appearances and made way outside to see the display that had already started.

--

Hong Kong's face twisted into an eerie smirk when Korea ran to him and said it was time to light the fireworks (also adding in how nicely he had created them, himself).

They had lined up a few nations to light the fireworks. After all, between America, China, and Hong Kong, there had been nearly enough fireworks to keep the party going for three more hours.

"Switzerland." Prussia yelled into his walkie-talkie, lighter in his other hand. "We ready to blow these things up?"

Switzerland looked around, giving Austria and Lichtenstein both a thumbs up when he saw they were out of the danger zone. "That's an affirmative. Turkey, are you ready?"

A laugh came over the radio. "You kidding? Me and Greece have been waiting to do this all night. Ain't that right, shithead?" The Turk looked over his shoulder and found a very irritated Greek flipping him off.

"'M ready, douche bag." He yawned. "What about you, Denmark?"

"Holy shit! I'm ready! So is Estonia and Sweden and Germany and Hong Kong and Spain and fucking Romano! Let's light this shit up…NOW!"

As soon as everybody flicked on their lighters, someone yelled over the radio. "Hey, why the hell do I have to be _fucking_ Romano?!" The elder Italian whined, flicking his lighter on.

"Hehe…" Spain came on just before the fireworks exploded. "I'd like to be fucking R--"

--

_**BOOM**_

"Where were you guys?" Hungary giggled. She had a faint idea. "The fireworks--

_**BAM**_

already started."

She hugged America and planted a kiss to his cheek.

"Happy--

_**FIZZ**_

birthday, though." She grinned and headed towards Poland and Lithuania. Probably all too happy to interrupt their make out session.

"And congrats! You scored yourself a nice piece of--

_**FWOOSH**_

_**England's hand tightened it's hold on America's as his face turned a nice shade of red. All the taller nation could do was laugh and plant a kiss to his forehead. Arthur looked up after Alfred's lips left his head and smiled.**_

"_**I'm sorry about ruining your birthday, Alfr--"**_

"_**Oh no, you didn't ruin it!" Alfred tried to butt in, but his brother wouldn't allow it.**_

"_**Like I was saying; I'm sorry about ruining your birthday, Alfred." He kissed the American boy on the lips. Just a peck. "Maybe tonight, I can make it up to you." He looked down, half ashamed at what he had said and half eager to follow up on that offer.**_

"_**You…" Al sighed and pulled Arthur into a suffocating hug. "You're still a little drunk, aren't you?"**_

_**They both laughed. The lights from the fireworks danced along Arthur's cheekbones and glistened in his eyes in such a way that, drunk or not, Alfred would have done a few things right on his front porch if it weren't for the many guests that were there with them.**_

"_**Just a little…"**_

_**--**_

"_**You stupid tube of cardboard! I'll show you what happens when you don't light!" Vash raised his gun to shoot at the last unlit firework sitting on America's lawn, but he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.**_

"_**Brother. You have to wait a little while." Lichtenstein smiled sheepishly and wrapped her arms around her brother's waist.**_

_**As soon as the older blonde turned to smile at his sibling, the firework in front of him took off into the sky and exploded into an array of red, white, and blue.**_

"_**Thank you…Zelda." He kissed her forehead and walked her back towards their friends, not worrying about the mess the fireworks had made. The American could clean it up later.**_

_**--**_

_**After seeing his guests out:**_

_**A very scared Russia, his very scared friends -one sleeping in the other's arms-, with his two sisters -one laughing nervously, one about to jump Russia-, a married couple, their dog, and their drunk sailor-suit-wearing son, a laughing Dane and a very irritated Norwegian.**_

_**A fighting Turkey and Greece with a silent Egypt following them, a boy in a skirt feeling up his boyfriend on the way out, China, person claiming he owned China's 'breasts', people trying to get him off of China's 'breasts', two drinking Germans, one Italian riding on a German's back, another Italian hitting a giggling Spaniard's back.**_

_**A frustrated Switzerland trying to shield his sister's ears from the horrors of Hungary's mind while Austria shook his head and smiled. **_

_**The only thing that was left was Canada's fluff ball polar bear; who just happened to be curled on the loveseat, sleeping.**_

"_**Merci beaucoup for letting us stay the night, Alfred." Francis grinned and grabbed his little Canadian's arm. "We will be sure to be as quite as possible. Bonne nuit…et bon anniversaire."**_

_**The Frenchman tugged Matthew up the stairs to Alfred's guest room, whispering suggestive things in French the whole way up.**_

_**A sigh made Alfred turn around to find England sitting on his couch and holding his head.**_

"_**Bloody hell, what did I drink? My head is killing me." **_

_**Alfred laughed and sat down beside the Brit. He pulled the shorter man to his chest, ignoring the protests that were shouted into his shirt.**_

"_**What in the world do you think you're doing, you git? Get off of me this instant! I dema-" His words died in his throat as soon as Alfred began sucking on his bottom lip.**_

"_**Come on. Let's go to bed. Francis and Matt are on a completely different floor than we are, so it'll be just us. Plus," America grinned and picked the Englishman up bridal style, once again ignoring his protests.**_

"_**You still owe me my birthday present. I think what France gave me might be out to good use."**_

_**Arthur's eyes widened, his bushy eyebrows raised so high, they almost hit his hairline.**_

"_**Y-you bloody wanker! You're as bad as that frog! Let me go, you git!"**_

_**--**_

_**After that night, Arthur made a note to shake France's hand for his two wonderful gifts:**_

_**the things he gave to Alfred for his birthday**_

_**and the whiskey he handed Arthur when they came to the party.**_


End file.
